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Apple has removed Bitchat, the offline messaging application associated with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, from the India App Store following a takedown demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Dorsey on Saturday shared a screenshot of Apple's notice on X, stating that the "government of India officially removes bitchat from the App Store." According to Apples notice posted by Dorsey, MeitY issued the demand under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Apple said the application would be removed because it included content that was illegal in India and did not comply with its App Review Guidelines. However, the notice does not specify what particular content was considered illegal, nor does it detail the specific grounds cited by MeitY. Apple directed the developer to contact the ministry for further information. Bitchat is a decentralised offline messaging app designed to allow people to communicate without cellular networks, Wi-Fi, phone numbers or a central messaging server. Its defining feature is a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh network. When two users are within Bluetooth range, their phones can communicate directly. Messages can then be relayed from one nearby device to another, effectively creating a chainor meshthat can extend communication beyond the normal range of a single Bluetooth connection. Earlier documentation described messages travelling across multiple hops between devices. The system is particularly notable because internet connectivity is not required for its offline messaging mode. Bitchat also supports encrypted private messaging and does not require conventional user accounts or phone-number registration. Its current App Store description says it can also use the decentralised Nostr protocol when internet connectivity is available. The app had already attracted regulatory attention in India. In July, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) issued a notice seeking restrictions on Bitchat's GitHub repositories, citing concerns that its architecture could make lawful interception and attribution more difficult and allow communication to continue during internet shutdowns. Apple has said Bitchat has been removed from the India App Store while remaining available in other territories selected by its developer. The company also said that the TestFlight version of the application would no longer function for testing in India. (ANI)
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